Community Health Education and Promotion: A Guide to Program Design and Evaluation, 2nd ed, by Mary Ellen Wurzbach (consulting ed.). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers; 2002. 660 pages; softcover; $54.00.
This helpful reference book, designed by the Aspen Reference Group, is written to provide basic, easy-to-understand, practical instruction and guidance for persons interested in designing, implementing, and evaluating community health education programs. It is written for community health educators, practitioners, and administrators, and also targets graduate level students in health education, health promotion, community health nursing, community management, or public health. An Instructors' Manual is also now available.
The book has nine chapters dealing with such topics as program development, personnel management, community assessment/mobilization, cultural competence in health promotion, development of successful programs, creating or tailoring effective materials, publication of programs, program evaluation, and adapting programs to different audiences. Three indices include information about professional organizations for health educators, Internet and other resources, and a summary of Healthy People 2010's goals and objectives.
Each chapter has clear subsections, outlined in detail at the beginning of each chapter, so that readers may quickly and easily find specific topics of interest. A comprehensive index also makes it easy to locate specific topics within chapters. The book's format emphasizes tables, charts, forms, checklists, and worksheets, and many examples are provided. Definitions of key concepts and "how-to" information are commonly included. Principles, standards, criteria, ethics, and models are also incorporated to provide a basic conceptual base for application of health promotion strategies.
This book is factual and surprisingly comprehensive in scope of subject matter, providing a great deal of information about many topics in a concise manner. However, persons with limited community health or health education experience may require supplemental material on community assessment and grant writing. Moreover, although various Internet resources are provided, given the "explosion" of wonderful Web sites, this index could easily be expanded to include more online resources for community health data.
Community Health Education and Promotion: A Guide to Program Design and Evaluation, second edition, would be a useful addition to health institutions' or health professionals' libraries. Overall, I would recommend it for persons planning or carrying out health promotion in communities.